Muggsy Bogues
Tyrone Curtis "Muggsy" Bogues (born January 9, 1965) is a retired American professional basketball player and current head coach of the United Faith Christian Academy boys' basketball team. The shortest player ever to play in the NBA, the 5 ft 3 in (1.60 m) Bogues played point guard for four teams during his 14-season career in the National Basketball Association. Best known for his time with the Charlotte Hornets, he also played for the Washington Bullets, the Golden State Warriors, and the Toronto Raptors, and later served as head coach of the now-defunct WNBA team Charlotte Sting. Biography High school and college Bogues was born in Baltimore, Maryland and played at Dunbar High School in his native Baltimore, where he was coached by Bob Wade, later the head coach at the University of Maryland. He was a teammate of future NBA players David Wingate (graduating class ahead of him), Reggie Williams and Reggie Lewis (both in his graduating class). The 1981–82 Dunbar Poets finished the season at 29–0 during Bogues' junior season and finished 31–0 during his senior season, and were ranked first in the nation by USA Today.He went on to play four years at Wake Forest University, averaging 11.3 points, 8.4 assists and 3.1 steals per game in his junior year. He followed with a senior campaign in which he averaged 14.8 points, 9.5 assists, 3.8 rebounds and 2.4 steals per game. He played for the US national team in the 1986 FIBA World Championship, and won the gold medal. NBA Bogues was drafted 12th overall in the 1987 NBA Draft by the Washington Bullets, and was part of a talent-laden draft class that also included David Robinson, Reggie Miller, Scottie Pippen, and Kevin Johnson. In his rookie year, Bogues was a teammate of Manute Bol who stood 7 ft 7 in (2.31 m) tall. They were the tallest and shortest players in NBA history at the time, with a 28 inches (71 cm) difference between them. Bol and Bogues appeared on three magazine covers together. Despite his height, Bogues managed to block 39 shots throughout his NBA span including one on Patrick Ewing. This happened on April 14, 1993 in the first quarter when Ewing was pulling the ball back to go up for the shot and Bogues stripped him of the ball. He was credited with the block though; footage of his block was shown in 1996 on NBA Action. Bogues reportedly had a 44-inch measured vertical leap, but his hands were too small to hold onto a ball to dunk one-handed. Charlotte Hornets The Miami Heat and Charlotte Hornets were set to enter the NBA for the 1988–89 NBA season. Despite their weakness at the point guard, Bogues was left unprotected by the Bullets. On June 22, 1988 the Hornets selected him in the expansion draft. As Bogues settled in Charlotte, he established himself as an exceptional passer, a great ball-stealer, and one of the fastest players on the court. Bogues spent ten years in Charlotte as the Hornets, led by Alonzo Mourning and Larry Johnson, became one of the most popular teams in the NBA and a perennial playoff contender. Bogues was one of the most popular players in Hornets history, despite the fact that he never averaged more than 11.2 points per game in a season. He is the Hornets' career leader in minutes played (19,768), assists (5,557), steals (1,067), turnovers (1,118), and assists per 48 minutes (13.5). Bogues held the Hornets' single-game record of 19 assists, broken on November 6, 2007 by Chris Paul (another player from Wake Forest), who collected 21 assists. Bogues also held the Hornets' postseason-game record of 15 assists, which was also broken on April 22, 2008 by Paul, when he dished out 17 assists in the Hornets' win over the Dallas Mavericks. Later career Two games into the 1997–98 NBA season, Bogues' career in Charlotte ended when he was traded, along with Tony Delk, to the Golden State Warriors in exchange for B. J. Armstrong. Bogues played two seasons with the Warriors, and then signed as a free agent with the Toronto Raptors, where he would eventually finish his career. Although he was later traded to both the New York Knicks and Dallas Mavericks, he did not play a game for either team.